Procurement: Throwing Money at China

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August 26, 2007: Taiwan, increasingly anxious about China's military buildup, will increase its defense spending by about 15 percent next year (to $10.5 billion). Taiwan is buying anti-missile missiles and anti-submarine aircraft (U.S. P-3Cs). China spends four times as much on defense, to support about two million troops. Taiwan has only 350,000 troops, and a population of 23 million, compared to 1.3 billion on the mainland. Taiwans's GPD is $650 billion, compared to $2.7 trillion for China. Thus the per capital income of Taiwan is more than ten times that of the mainland. Taiwans military is based on the American model, with an emphasis on quality. China based its military on the Soviet model, although for decades the emphasis was on mobilizing a huge force of guerillas. Now China is trying to develop a force that can fight on Western terms (high tech operated by well trained troops.)

 

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